NewsRadio Savannah and our sponsor The Dewitt Tilton Group introduces you to the Ledbetter-Daniels family and their Ronald McDonald House Of The Coastal Empire experience:
Andrew’s story began December 18th, 2022. That’s the day the two little pink lines appeared. We were shocked and ecstatic for our new baby, we just couldn’t wait to welcome him into our family and shower him with all our love.
This is just the beginning of all the complications he’s had to overcome and face. Little did we all know that he had a subchorionic hemorrhage sitting next to him. When we found out about the hemorrhage it was the same size as our new little baby, so our journey began with me on bed rest. Luckily when we went back for a follow up two weeks later the hemorrhage had shrunk, and it was at that point we were told we should have a healthy textbook pregnancy the rest of the journey. We did have just that, a seemingly normal pregnancy until 29-week gestation. It wasn’t until his 32-week checkup that further testing was done since Andy wasn’t measuring where he should’ve been measuring. It was at this time that a growth ultrasound was performed along with a doppler test during the ultrasound. Our doctor had discovered that our son was indeed measuring smaller than what a 32-week baby should measure, as well as a cord blood flow problem.
We were hospitalized that night and sent to Memorial Health with high-risk doctors. It was then that it was confirmed that Andy was measuring 29 weeks, and the lung strengthening shots that were given for Andy’s lungs had temporarily fixed the cord flow problem. We were soon discharged, and everything seemed to be going well until my next appointment. They found that the cord flow problem had reappeared, but this time it was worse. We were immediately readmitted to Memorial, and it was the next morning that the tests were performed once again. The problem wasn’t going away nor was it getting any better, so agreed upon his early arrival at 33-week gestation. Right before delivery, Andy started to have some distress signs that lead to our plan being that more important.
On July 13th Andrew made his appearance in the world with some of the biggest screams he could muster. His big fight had just begun, and he had a lot to prove. He had severe lung disease causing him to need high pressure oxygen for his first month of life. After many attempts to wean him down from a CPAP machine to a high flow oxygen machine we had to just stick to the CPAP and give him some Lasix’s medication over a few days. Turned out he had pent up fluid on him making it harder on him to breathe. His last wean attempt started on a Friday and he stayed off the oxygen. Our baby was done with it and could finally breathe all on his own! Our last obstacle to discharge was passing the car seat challenge, his lungs just couldn’t handle the sitting position a car seat required. We were all overcome with joy and were ready to take our baby home. We were able to get discharged and take little Andy home. He’d finally made it to the 50th percentile for a preemie meaning he was starting to really grow finally.
Throughout Andy’s time in the NICU we stayed at the Ronald McDonald House, and we are thankful to everyone there. We made friends with other moms going through similar experiences and the caring staff for always checking in on us to see how we were doing. Andrew had a lot of mountains he’s had to climb but he’s overcame them all and is still growing while he’s bossing his mama, daddy, and big brother around. Our lives would never be the same without our precious little fighter.
How to help:
⏰ Accepting monetary donations between Now - December 11th, 2023
📍 Please deliver all cash, check, and gift card donations directly to iHeartMedia Savannah, 245 Alfred Street Savannah, GA 31408
💳Forms of donations accepted:
- Click here to make an online donation to the RMH. Add "Shop With A Cop" in memo.
- Checks made out to Ronald McDonald House with "Shop With A Cop" in memo.
- Visa, Master Card, AmEx or Target cards.
- Cash
Sponsored by The Dewitt Tilton Group!